Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
FOLDABLE TANK WITH EXTENDED CAPACITY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is generally directed to a foldable
water tank and specifically to a foldable water tank having an
extended capacity that fits within a single lane of travel of a
road.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a foldable water tank
comprising a foldable receptacle including an open receptacle
portion and a closed receptacle portion, the open receptacle
portion communicating with the closed receptacle portion such
that water from the open receptacle flows to the closed
receptacle, the open receptacle portion including side walls; a
folding frame operably associated with the side walls to support
the sidewalls in an upright position; and the closed receptacle
portion extending outwardly from the frame.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a foldable water tank
embodying the present invention.
Fig. 2 shows the foldable tank of Fig. 1 filled with water.
Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 3-3 in
Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is perspective view of a frame of the tank of Fig.
1.
Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the frame of Fig. 4 shown
partly folded.
Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the tank of Fig. 1, showing
a portion of the tank folded.
Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the tank of Fig. 1
completely folded for stowage or transport.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A foldable tank 2 embodying the present invention is
disclosed in Fig 1. The tank 2 comprises a foldable frame 4,
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preferably square in plan view when unfolded with four sides,
supporting a foldable receptacle 5 having an open receptacle
portion 6 and a foldable closed receptacle portion 8 extending
from the open receptacle portion 6. The receptacle 5 is
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preferably made from conventional water-tight material. The
closed receptacle portion 8 may be seen as an extension of the
open receptacle portion 6 made in the form of a bladder,
extending outwardly from the frame 4. When the tank 2 is empty,
the closed receptacle portion 8 is preferably flat for
convenient folding and stowage. When the tank 2 is filled with
water, the closed receptacle portion 8 swells up with water from
the open receptacle portion 6, thereby advantageously providing
additional capacity to open receptacle portion 6.
The open receptacle portion 6 includes side walls 10
supported by the frame 4 and a bottom wall 12. A side wall 14
is supported by the frame 4 and is attached to a top wall 16 of
the closed receptacle portion 8 to form a continuous top wall.
A bottom wall 18 (see Fig. 3) of the closed receptacle portion 8
is attached to the bottom wall 12 to form a continuous bottom
wall. Thus it can be seen that closed receptacle 8 opens up
into the closed receptacle 6 such that water flows freely
between the open receptacle portion 6 and the closed receptacle
portion 8. Cord 20 is threaded through openings 21 along the
upper edge portions of the side walls 10 and 14 and wound around
the top rails 34 and 40 of the frame 4.
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The closed receptacle 8 extends away from the frame 4 at the
side wall 14 along a central axis 23 parallel to the two opposed
sides 28 of the frame 4. The closed receptacle 8 is preferably
rectangular in plan view, with substantially the same width as the
width of the frame 4 so that it occupies the same lane of the road
on which the open receptacle 6 is deployed, and when folded the
closed receptacle 8 is substantially the same width as the width of
the frame 4. A connector 24 (shown with a cap) for connecting to a
hose (not shown) is advantageously provided at an end portion of
the closed receptacle portion 8 for drawing water from the tank 2.
The connector 24 is preferably attached to the top wall 16.
The closed receptacle portion 8 may be formed by joining two
overlapping sheet materials and joining their three outer edges 26
by standard means and joining the remaining edges to the respective
side wall 14 and the bottom wall 12.
Referring to Fig. 3, the closed receptacle portion 8 will
expand to a volume as water 9 from the open receptacle .portion 6
finds its way into the closed receptacle portion 8. The side
wall 14 of the open receptacle portion 6 may be seen as an
extension of the top wal1.16 of the closed receptacle portion 8.
Similarly, the bottom wall 12 may also be seen as an extension
of the bottom wall 18. Thus, an opening 24 into the open
receptacle portion 6 is formed between the top wall 16 and the
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bottom wall 18. The opening 24 allows the water from the open
receptacle 6 to flow and fill up the closed receptacle 18. The
closed receptacle portion 8 advantageously expands the capacity
of the open receptacle portion 6 without increasing its width,
thereby keeping the width of the tank 2 to within the width of a
single lane of a road. By making the tank 2 to fit within a
single lane of a road, vehicular traffic would not be impeded,
especially in a two lane road where the other lane is available
for vehicle traffic. The tank 2 is advantageously narrow enough
but provides capacity normally provided by a larger and wider
tank that exceeds the width of a single lane.
The closed receptacle portion 8 may also be provided at the
opposite side of the frame 4 to provide even more capacity for
the foldable tank 2.
The preferred capacity specified by most fire departments
is 2000 gallons or more, which increases the footprint of the
standard tank frames to 11' or more. Using such standard tanks
on narrow county roads, which may only be 14' - 16' wide,
creates a hazard by either risking damage to the portable tank
by setting up the frame to overhang the drainage ditch on the
road side, or if the tank frame is fully on the pavement (or
gravel) the water tanker truck must veer off on to the shoulder
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toward the opposite side of the road and risk rollover. The
tank 2 advantageously provides the preferred capacity without
impinging into the adjacent travel lane.
Many fire trucks cannot store a folding tank frame, which
is longer than 8' on the storage rack on their trucks. For
example, a popular 2100 gallon folding frame tank is 11' 3"L x
11' W. A 2000 gallon rectangular frame is 14'L x 8' W. The
tank 2 advantageously provides a folded dimension of about 8'
that is suitable for storage on the fire truck rack while at the
same time providing the preferred capacity.
Referring to Fig. 4, the frame 4 is preferably 4-sided.
The frame 4 has a pair of opposite sides 28 and another pair of
opposite sides 30 and 32. Each of the sides 28 includes a pair
of top rails 34 and a pair of bottom rails 36. A plurality of
posts 38 joins the bottom rails 36 to the respective top rails
34. Each of the sides 30 and 32 includes a top rail 40 and a
bottom rail 42. The side 32 includes a plurality of vertical
posts 38 joining the bottom rail 42 to the respective top rail
32. The side 30 only has vertical posts 44 at the respective
corners to provide an opening 46 framed by the top rail 30, the
bottom rail 42 and the corner posts 44 to allow the closed
receptacle portion 8 to be joined to the open receptacle portion
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6. The side 30 advantageously does not bend at the center,
unlike the sides 28 so that a rigid support is provided for the
closed receptacle portion 8 at the opening 46.
The sides 30 and 32 are attached to the corresponding sides
28 with hinges 48 secured to the respective corners of the
adjacent sides. Each of the sides 28 is made of two sections 50
attached to each other with hinges 52 and 54. The frame 4 is
preferably made from tubular members of any cross-sectional
shape, such as square or circular.
Referring to Fig. 5, the frame 4 is shown in a partially
folded position (the receptacle 5 is not shown for clarity but
should be understood that the receptacle 5 remains attached to
the frame 4 as the frame is folded). The hinges 48, 52 and 54
advantageously allow the frame 4 to be folded into a compact,
substantially flat configuration, where the top and bottom rails
of the sides 30 and 32 are parallel to each other. The frame 4
is folded flat by folding the sides 28 via the sections 50 and
the hinges 48, 52 and 54. The hinges 48, 52 and 54
advantageously allow the inward rotation of the sections 50
toward the respective sides 30 and 32 such that the tank 2 may
be folded into a compact, substantially flat shape. The hinges
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,
advantageously allow rotation of the sections 50 to accomplish
the folding.
The hinges 48 may be the same as the hinges 54. The hinges
52 are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,938,291. The hinges 52
advantageously protect the user's hand from being pinched during
folding or unfolding of the tank 2.
Referring to Figs. 1 and 6, the closed receptacle portion 8
lays flat when empty, and is then folded, preferably at
approximately 24 inch increments, until it reaches the base of
the frame 4. A series of webbing straps 56 with double "D" ring
cinching straps with VELCRO are preferably used to secure the
folded closed receptacle portion 8 to the frame 4.
Referring to Fig. 7, the foldable tank 2 is shown
completely folded in substantially flat and compact
configuration. The closed receptacle portion 8 is attached to
the side 30 of the frame 4 when folded. Even with the increased
capacity afforded by the closed receptacle portion 8, the folded
length of the tank 2 is suitable for stowage on a typical fire
truck. The tank 2 when folded is about 8'3" long.
The tank 2 advantageously doubles or triples the capacity
of any standard folding tank. The tank 2 is only as wide as a
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fire truck and therefore does not impede traffic flow on narrow
rural roads, but provides a larger water capacity on a smaller
profile. The tank 2 further allows existing water tender trucks
to carry single lane style tanks without having to lengthen the
frame as in the original rectangular folding tanks. For
example, a standard 2000 gallon square folding tank measures 11'
3" square. To make that capacity function in a "single lane"
configuration, the proportions must be 8' wide, but stretched to
14' in length. With the tank 2 of the present invention, the
tank frame is about 8' 3" square, with up to a 16' extension
provided by the closed receptacle portion 8 to advantageously
increase the capacity up to 2500 gallons and still fit within a
single lane of the road, thereby avoiding impeding oncoming
traffic on a narrow rural road.
The capacity of the tank 2 may still be extended by
installing a second closed receptacle portion 8 to the side 32
of the frame 4. The vertical posts 38 shown will have to be
removed to provide a large opening such as the opening 46 at the
side 30. The second closed receptacle portion 8 will extend
outwardly from the frame 4 in the opposite direction as the
first closed receptacle portion 8 shown in Fig. 1. Accordingly,
the closed receptacle portion 8 advantageously doubles (with one
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extension) or triples (with two extensions) the tank capacity on
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any size standard or custom size folding frame tank. Since the
frame 4 has a single lane width, its use on narrow rural roads
will advantageously not impede vehicular traffic, since only a
single lane of the road will be occupied by the tank 2 when
deployed. This is useful for fire departments that regularly
run water shuttling operations on narrow rural roads.
While this invention has been described as having preferred
design, it is understood that it is capable of further
modification, uses and/or adaptations following in general the
principle of the invention and including such departures from
the present disclosure as come within known or customary
practice in the art to which the invention pertains, and as may
be applied to the essential features set forth, and fall within
the limits of the appended claims.
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